


The Gryffindor or Slytherin Path to Greatness

by caz251



Series: The Great Maze Challenge [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-14
Updated: 2014-10-14
Packaged: 2018-02-21 04:58:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2455631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caz251/pseuds/caz251
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barty considers were certain actions have taken him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Gryffindor or Slytherin Path to Greatness

**Author's Note:**

> Written for The Great Maze Challenge - You step into the maze and stick to the shadows. You are going to get to the end secretly and swiftly. Talk about someone being sneaky.

Barty Crouch Junior had had a lot of time to consider his actions and what had cost him his freedom for Azkaban and then the gilded prison that was his childhood home. It had been their approach that had caused all the problems, they had been too Gryffindor in their actions, the result of Bellatrix's zeal to find their Master's whereabouts. She had charged into the Longbottom's home dragging him and the male Lestrange's with her and sealing all their fates as a result. Prison, the official one or the other more secretive one, both had changed him. He now knew without a doubt that he had to be more subtle, more creative, more Slytherin.

Once he had gotten into Hogwarts in the guise of Mad-Eye Moody he knew that he would have to use as much cunning and subterfuge as he could to get away with his Master's plans without getting caught. There were many obstacles in his path to making the competition run smooth, but the main was making sure that he was not discovered as imposter, something that would happen without copious amounts of polyjuice potion. Luckily it was a potion that he was well equipped to brew; the ingredients however were often watched closely by the Ministry of Magic as polyjuice potion was a controlled substance. He couldn't order the ingredients, not in the quantities that he needed anyway, and especially not as Mad-Eye. People would take notice if he started ordering the ingredients for the potion, and people would no doubt look at him a lot more closely than they had been. No he would have to get them by other means, and that would mean breaking into Snape's private stores. It was a feat that the most brave of Gryffindors would balk at, but he would use Slytherin cunning and make sure that he was never caught, and that the blame was easily pinned on someone else.

Leading each of the champions in a merry dance was enjoyable, and twisting events and the other staff to do as he wished worked really well, he was becoming a master manipulator very easily, and it was becoming addicting the power that he felt when people did as he wished. That they didn't even know that they were doing what he wanted them to do was even more intoxicating. The day of the final task he was almost giddy as he walked openly down to the maze with the Tri-wizard trophy that would lead Potter to his Lord's presence. He had just charmed the portkey in front of everyone, ostensibly to lead to the beginning of the maze, when in reality it would take the brat far away from Hogwarts.

Once the brat had been portkeyed away he knew that his part had worked, and he really should sneak off, escape into the shadows and leave Hogwarts. He waited though, and watched as the brat returned, still alive, after having escaped his Lord. He led the boy away, determined to finish his Lord's work for him, and get rid of the brat once and for all. Too late he realised that he had acted just like Bellatrix, he had taken the Gryffindor approach rather the more sneaky path and ended up with a date with a dementor as a result, a date which would end with a kiss.


End file.
